Huangshan Isn't Avatar, But May As Well Be

One weekend, I decided to take a trip to Huangshan, China's most-visited mountains.

I worked late Thursday night to schedule and prepare everything for the following week, packed, and headed out after work Friday evening.

The town at the base of Huangshan.

It was raining pretty hard before we started up.

It was a loooong way up while carrying everything on our backs, stairs the entire way.

Rest stop

Goin' up, up, up. It was completely foggy on our way up so we literally could not see a thing. That may have worked in our favour though, as we could focus more on trudging forward.

We reached the top!! Also it was cloudy, we still could not see a thing.

Lol Marcus

Couples locking up their love at the top of the mountain.

Then the clouds began to clear...

And suddenly Pandora appeared!!

Gorgeous with the perfect amount of mist. 

Misty Mountains

Take note.

Stone walkway. I love that these incredibly complex, rugged mountains are wheelchair-accessible

Then the clouds begin to clear again...

Peaking through the sea of clouds

This photo would have been so cool if he'd GOTTEN THE ANGLE RIGHT

It's still a pretty cool photo though.

Friggin spectacular

Pay no mind; they're just building a railing on the edge of the world

Sitting atop a protruding rock on the edge of a cliff - who could pass up the opportunity?!

Lovely trailmates

More lovely trailmates

Lovely flora and fauna

These men amaze me. They are hired to carry massive loads of supplies on their shoulders to and from the various rest stations and lodges around the mountains. Occasionally they stop for a rest, revealing massive sores and bumps over their shoulders. 

Congratulations on your children growing taller.

Just can't get enough of this view. Definitely worth the weekend trip.

Who the Hell is Boris?

Over the past month or so, our teaching team has undergone some weird new changes.

A lovely new teaching team: none of them are Boris

While we love Jerry and Jeremiah, it was sad to say goodbye to Fahim. Our teaching threesome, while not perfect, managed to create some sense of structure out of the pretty damn confusing jumble we were tossed into. Neither of them are Boris either.

Back to the new folks, this is how Jeremiah eats his noodles

His success rate is currently unknown

New people = a new fascination with this pretty spectacular city

A new interest in things like the Chinese Art Museum, shaped like a traditional Chinese alcohol cup

This is a regular sight. It's really satisfying to know you can make a bed out of just about anything

I asked if it was possible to borrow a toaster oven to teach the students how to bake bread, to which my boss responded "of course! I'll bring it tomorrow and leave it on your desk." The next day, I discovered a toaster and a waffle iron waiting on my desk. We've been making some pretty funky bread.

Decided to spend an evening hacking at a coconut. So much effort, so little reward. My respect for coconut-choppers (if that's a thing) has skyrocketed.

Cool unnecessary addition: one of my taxi seatbelt buckles didn't have a casing, so I played with it for the entire ride. It's actually so fascinating to just watch how the inside of a seatbelt buckle works.

When my coffee arrived with a swan on top inside a golden cup, I laughed too hard not to take an artsy photo. I'm sorry for dragging you into this, Margaret Atwood.

Last week, while semi-listening to Jeremiah ramble in the background as I worked on student vocab lists, he said "I think we make a really great teaching team. I'm so glad we have Jerry instead of Boris. I never really wanted to work with Boris. Who would want to work with a guy named 'Boris' anyway? Jerry's an awesome roommate - not like Boris would have been." Not paying attention, I didn't think about what he had said until after he left the room. Who the hell is Boris? There has never been a "Boris" in this office.

Rather than hang out with his super- cool teachers, Roy has barricaded himself behind his ladder on the unmade upper bunk, warding us away with a pair of underwear 😞

Learning acro-yoga!

The students set up the lights to form a spotlight over us

We later realized that Boris was someone Fahim had mentioned once as a possibility for his replacement. As Boris was supposedly hard to get along with, Jeremiah had dreaded sharing his room with this person constantly until Jerry arrived. Meanwhile, the rest of us forgot he existed.

Weekly private sessions with each student, showing them just how legitimate we wholly-underqualified undergraduate teachers are.

The "two originals" still powering on through all the changes